A minor disaster

Last night before Rhodri came home from his trip, I wanted to finish off my list of stuff to do. One of the things on the list was to give both Rhiannon and Tryfan haircuts. Normally there is no problem doing this, but actually come to think of it, Rhodri is the one who has been giving Tryfan haircuts for the past few years.

So I didn't realize that T gets really freaked out by the electric clippers... the combination of noise and itchy hair falling onto shoulders makes Tryfan move and squirm and complain bitterly. I was trying to do the job really fast and just get it over with! Unfortunately, I didn't see the blade cover fall off the blade and so accidentally mowed this stripe across the back of his head! 

Poor little guy. When I saw what I had done, I switched off the clippers and went into the other room to get a shorter blade cover so that I could try to repair the damage (as if!!), but when I was gone he looked in the mirror to see the front part of his head (i.e. the part that looked good/ normal) and burst into tears because it was too short and he didn't like how he looked. So by then he was crying uncontrollably and he didn't even know yet about the disaster on the back of his head! I gave up trying to fix the damage and helped him get into the shower. He had a nice long soothing shower, and when he got out I said to him, "Tryfan, I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is that I'm going to buy you 2 Skylander dudes! You can choose any 2 and I will buy them for you! The bad news is that I made a mistake with your hair and it doesn't look very good. You'll need to wear a hat to school tomorrow and probably for the next few weeks."  

Right then, Rhodri arrived home. Rhiannon had already briefed him on the hair disaster before he came upstairs, but it was still shocking for him to see! Anyway, at least by now things were calmer and Tryfan kept being reminded (and suitably excited) about the Skylander dudes he was going to get from me.

This morning I left for work and Rhodri had the genius idea of showing Tryfan photos of soldiers, then asking if he wanted a real soldier's haircut. This did the trick because he is really into soldiers. So Rhodri saved the day by giving Tryfan a really good soldier's haircut.

 

In the end, he never did have to wear a hat to school and actually none of the kids even noticed! A few of the parents made comments but only in a funny way. I don't think I'll be using the clippers for Tryfan's hair anytime again soon!